Daily Inter Lake: Wolves are off the list again
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final rule Wednesday that officially removes wolves in Montana and Idaho from the Endangered Species list.
The rule comes on the heels of Congressional action that compelled delisting.
“We are implementing the recent legislation that directs the delisting of the gray wolf in most of the northern Rocky Mountains,” Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes said in a prepared statement. “As with other delisted species, we will be applying the Endangered Species Act’s post-delisting monitoring requirements to ensure that wolf populations remain robust while under state wildlife management.”
Language that was attached to the 2011 appropriations bill by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., reinstated terms of a 2009 rule that delisted wolves in Montana and Idaho, as well as parts of Oregon, Washington and Utah.
Wolves in Wyoming will remain listed but that state is developing a management plan with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to allow for delisting.
